First-principles study on the gas sensing property of the Ge, As, and Br doped PtSe2

Based on first-principles calculations, the adsorption behaviors of H2, O2, CO, CO2, NH3, NO, and NO2 molecules on the Ge-, As- and Br-doped PtSe2 monolayers are theoretically investigated. The results indicate that it is viable for the dopant atoms to be filled into the Se vacancies under Pt-rich conditions. Ge and As act as p-type dopants, while Br acts as n-type dopant. For the adsorption of molecules, the geometrical structures, adsorption energies, charge transfers and the electronic and magnetic properties of the most stable configurations are presented and discussed. It is found that the Ge-doped PtSe2 monolayers exhibit greatly enhanced sensitivity toward O2, CO, NH3, NO and NO2 molecules and the As-doped PtSe2 monolayers are more sensitive toward O2, NH3, NO and NO2 molecules than the pristine ones. This is evident from large adsorption energies, charge transfers, and obvious changes of the electronic states due to the molecule adsorption. However, Br doping cannot enhance the sensing sensitivity of the PtSe2 monolayer. The possible reason is that when substituting for the Se atom, the doped Br with more 4p electrons and less empty orbitals are already chemically saturated by the two of the three neighboring Pt atoms, and thus lose the ability of charge exchange with the adsorbed molecules. On the contrary, the Ge and As as p-type dopants have sizable empty 4p orbitals near the Fermi level to exchange the electrons with the adsorbed molecules, and thus form strong bonds with them.